Still Saturday::to stop scurrying about...

One of the reasons we invest our lives in some insignificant ways is that we never become still enough to let the great realities hit us. We are always on the move. Always in a hurry. Or when we do stop, we flip on the radio or the TV and let somebody else's hurry fill our minds.

Psalm 46:10 says, "Be still [or cease striving, cease hurrying, be still, be quiet] and know that I am God. I am [or: will be, it's probably a promise] exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!"

What that text says is that the life-revolutionizing impact of God's supremacy in the world and his inevitable triumph over the nations, and the coming of his glorious kingdom of righteousness and peace—the impact of this awesome reality doesn't hit us and hold us and shape us unless we become still, and quiet before God. GOD hits home in the stillness. If you want your life to be significant, you've got to stop running, and stop scurrying about, and turn off the TV and the radio, and get alone, and be quiet, and let the mammoth realities of human lostness and eternal judgment and never-ending joy and God's universal triumph take hold of you and change your life. 

John Piper, God: Refuge for His People, Exalted Among the Nations

Please keep Sandra and the rest of the Compassion team in prayer as they travel to the Dominican Republic this weekend.

Thanksliving::Day 18:when grace rebounds...

When the grace of Jesus penetrates the human heart, it rebounds back to God as gratitude. Christian gratitude is grace reflected back to God in the happiness we feel toward Jesus.

John Piper, Grace, Gratitude, and the Glory of God

30 Days of Thanksliving - Day 18

Still Saturday: death to the timid and dull...

When Christ died for sins, he took from the devil his one lethal weapon: unforgiven sin.  

Freedom from fear was the aim of Christ in doing this. By dying he delivered "all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery" (Hebrews 2.14)

The fear of death enslaves. It makes us timid and dull. Jesus died to set us free. When the fear of death is destroyed by an act of self-sacrificing love, the bondage to boring, bigheaded self-preservation is broken. 

We are freed to love like Christ, even at the cost of our lives. 

John Piper,  The Passion of Jesus Christ,  p.97

{Between February 12th and April 16th (the Wednesday before Easter), I am reading and discussing John Piper's The Passion of Jesus Christ - Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die with a group of friends. From now through Easter, my Still Saturday quotes and I {LOVE} Sunday scriptures will come from my readings in this book by Piper, and the photos might simply be a few favorites from those I've taken during the week.}

Still Saturday::the best life...

[Christ] died to produce in us a passion for good deeds. Christian purity is not the mere avoidance of evil, but the pursuit of good. 

When God's forgiveness and acceptance have freed us from fear and pride and greed, we are filled with a zeal to love others the way we have been loved. We risk our possessions and our lives since we are secure in Christ.

Christ died to make us...passionate to help the poor and the perishing. It is the best life, no matter what it costs us in this world: They get help, we get joy, God gets glory.

John Piper,  The Passion of Jesus Christ,  p.91

{Between February 12th and April 16th (the Wednesday before Easter), I am reading and discussing John Piper's The Passion of Jesus Christ - Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die with a group of friends. From now through Easter, my Still Saturday quotes and I {LOVE} Sunday scriptures will come from my readings in this book by Piper, and the photos might simply be a few favorites from those I've taken during the week.}

Still Saturday::dying to live...

{Blue speckled mockingbird eggs}

...the Bible says that the new way of obedience is fruit-bearing, not law-keeping.

"You...have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God." {Romans 7.4}

We have died to law-keeping so that we might live to fruit-bearing.

Die to the law, that you might bear the fruit of love.

John Piper,  The Passion of Jesus Christ,  p.81

{Between February 12th and April 16th (the Wednesday before Easter), I am reading and discussing John Piper's The Passion of Jesus Christ - Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die with a group of friends. From now through Easter, my Still Saturday quotes and I {LOVE} Sunday scriptures will come from my readings in this book by Piper, and the photos might simply be a few favorites from those I've taken during the week.}

Still Saturday::without moving a muscle...

{mulberry tree in bloom}

When Christ died and rose again, the old temple was replaced by the globally accessible Christ. You may come to him without moving a muscle. He is as close as faith.

John Piper,  The Passion of Jesus Christ,  p.69

{Between February 12th and April 16th (the Wednesday before Easter), I am reading and discussing John Piper's The Passion of Jesus Christ - Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die with a group of friends. From now through Easter, my Still Saturday quotes and I {LOVE} Sunday scriptures will come from my readings in this book by Piper, and the photos might simply be a few favorites from those I've taken during the week.}

I {LOVE} Sunday:to be brought near...

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off
have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
Ephesians 2.13

Between February 12th and April 16th (the Wednesday before Easter), I am reading and discussing John Piper's The Passion of Jesus Christ - Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die with a group of friends. During this time, my Still Saturday quotes and I {LOVE} Sunday scriptures will come from my readings in this book by Piper, and the photos* might simply be a few favorites from those I've taken during the week.

Still Saturday::to rejoice in suffering...

What does it mean that because of Christ's death for us God will certainly with him graciously give us "all things"? It means he will give us all things that are good for us. All things that we really need in order to be conformed to the image of his Son (Romans 8.29). All things we need in order to attain everlasting joy.

It's the same as the other biblical promise: "My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19). This promise is clarified in the preceding words: "In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:12-13).

It says we can do "all things" through Christ. But notice "all things" includes "hungering" and "needing." God will meet every real need, including the ability to rejoice in suffering when many felt needs do not get met.

John Piper,  The Passion of Jesus Christ,  p. 53

{Between February 12th and April 16th (the Wednesday before Easter), I am reading and discussing John Piper's The Passion of Jesus Christ - Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die with a group of friends. From now through Easter, my Still Saturday quotes and I {LOVE} Sunday scriptures will come from my readings in this book by Piper, and the photos might simply be a few favorites from those I've taken during the week.}

I {LOVE} Sunday::to know I'll be given good things...

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all,
how will he not also with him graciously give us all good things?
Romans 8.32

Between February 12th and April 16th (the Wednesday before Easter), I am reading and discussing John Piper's The Passion of Jesus Christ - Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die with a group of friends. From now through Easter, my Still Saturday quotes and I {LOVE} Sunday scriptures will come from my readings in this book by Piper, and the photos* might simply be a few favorites from those I've taken during the week.

Still Saturday::it costs us nothing...

Forgiveness costs us nothing. All our costly obedience is the fruit, not the root, of being forgiven. That's why we call it grace. But it cost Jesus his life...Oh, how precious is the news that God does not hold our sins against us! And how beautiful is Christ, whose blood made it right for God to do this.

John Piper, The Passion of Jesus Christ, p.37

(Between February 12th and April 16th (the Wednesday before Easter), I am reading and discussing John Piper's The Passion of Jesus Christ - Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die with a group of friends. From now through Easter, my Still Saturday quotes and I {LOVE} Sunday scriptures will come from my readings in this book by Piper, and the photos might simply be a few favorites from those I've taken during the week.)

 

Still Saturday::He loves ME...

Faded and dog-eared, the pink sticky note's been there at the top of our refrigerator next to the white message board for keeping a running grocery list and just above the Florida's Natural magnet for maybe ten years.

I don't remember when exactly. I don't remember the sermon that inspired it or who put it in my hand as I left church that day. I only remember that I don't ever want to forget that Jesus loves me - poor, pitiful me.

The death of Christ is not only the demonstration of God's love (John 3.16), it is also the supreme expression of Christ's own love for all who receive it as their treasure. The early witnesses who suffered most for being Christians were captured by this fact: Christ "loved me and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2.20). They took the self-giving act of Christ's sacrifice very personally. They said, "He loved me. He gave himself for me."

John Piper, The Passion of Jesus Christ, p.30

(Between February 12th and April 16th (the Wednesday before Easter), I am reading and discussing John Piper's The Passion of Jesus Christ - Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die with a group of friends. From now through Easter, my Still Saturday quotes and I {LOVE} Sunday scriptures will come from my readings in this book by Piper, and the photos might simply be a few favorites from those I've taken during the week.)

Still Saturday::in awe of being loved...

We will never stand in awe of being loved by God until we reckon with the seriousness of our sin and the justice of his wrath against us. But when, by grace, we waken to our unworthiness, then we may look at the suffering and death of Christ and say, "In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the [wrath-absorbing] propitiation for our sins." (I John 4:10)

Piper, The Passion of Jesus Christ, p.21

Between February 12th and April 16th (the Wednesday before Easter), I am reading and discussing John Piper's The Passion of Jesus Christ - Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die with a group of friends. From now through Easter, my Still Saturday quotes and I {LOVE} Sunday scriptures will come from my readings in this book by Piper, and the photos might simply be a few favorites from those I've taken during the week. 

Still Saturday::glimpses...

New Christians or old Christians, what we need in order to walk by faith and not by sight is glimpses. I know that sounds contradictory. "We need sight not to walk by sight?" But it's not contradictory, because the sight we need is not a sight of what the day holds, but a sight of who holds the day.

John Piper, in the foreword to Not By Sight by Jon Bloom

The Color of September::It's not about me...

{Introduction - Although you are welcome to use my living in yellow list, please know that I wrote it for me. I share a few truths and thoughts not that I think you need them, but that I need them, and writing about them helps me do just that.}

Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Life has been a point of discussion and disagreement among Christians since its publication nearly a decade ago, and though I don't agree with him on every matter, he begins the first chapter by supporting my number one belief about how I'm to live this mist of a life I've been given.

It’s not about you. 

The purpose of your life is far greater than your own personal fulfillment, your peace of mind, or even your happiness. It’s far greater than your family, your career, or even your wildest dreams and ambitions. If you want to know why you were placed on this planet, you must begin with God. You were born by his purpose and for his purpose.

Whether or not I understood years ago that my life was hidden in Christ and that the purpose of my life was to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, the constant demands of raising and homeschooling children and caring for my bedridden mother in our home made it crystal clear that life was not about me. But I also thought that if I lived long enough, those demands would likely give way to the opportunity to be self-indulgent - free to go and do as I pleased, though I didn't give much thought to where I would go or what I would do.

Now that I'm here - how easy it would be in this season - my children grown with families of their own - for me to cater to selfish me and do just that - but  I know better. It's not the purpose for which I was created.

John Piper's Don't Waste Your Life has been a profound influence on shaping my beliefs about how I am to live this life hidden in Christ.  

We waste our lives when we do not pray and think and dream and plan and work toward magnifying God in all spheres of life. God created us for this: to live our lives in a way that makes him look more like the greatness and the beauty and the infinite worth that he really is. 

It goes back to what I wrote about being an image-bearer - to be who I am where ever God takes me today that I can pray and think and dream and plan  and work toward magnifying God - because it's not about me.

Every other living in yellow point must hinge on this one belief....I'll waste my time and my life if I try to make it about me. 

This past Sunday, Louis and I, along with the other life group leaders at our church, were asked to be available during both worship services. We attended the first service and then hung out in the coffee shop outside the sanctuary until we were needed during the second service. While we were in the coffee shop, a young man came in after leaving worship with his fussy baby. I considered offering to watch his baby so he could go back into the service, too, but he explained that it was his wife that usually had to leave with the baby and he wanted to do it for her this time. I thought that was a sweet gesture, so I let it go, and told him that I remember those days with babies and how discouraging it was for me to get all dressed up for church only to have to leave with a fussy baby. It's one of the reasons I think churches (thankfully ours is not one of them) that require young mothers to help out in the church nursery have it all wrong - it's an attitude that comes from the older women who think they did their time while they were young mothers and they now deserve to not be bothered. They may as well be saying, it's all about me.

When the baby's fussing turned into inconsolable crying that only a mother could soothe, the young man did let me hold his baby long enough for him to go back into the sanctuary to get his wife, but that was such a little thing. I love babies, but to be honest, I probably wouldn't have enjoyed watching that baby for the entire worship service. He was fussy and heavy and it was hard on me physically to hold and try to comfort him. I was happy to give him to his mother when she came in the coffee shop, but I also knew that I should be willing to watch him longer (anyone can do anything for just an hour, right?) if I'm going to live like it's not about me - because my strength to do anything when I'm weak doesn't point to me but to the Lord who gives me strength.

I'd love to hear your thoughts and hope you will share them here.

   

I {LOVE} Sunday::to be stunned and awed...

God means for us to be stunned and awed by his work of creation. But not for its own sake. He means for us always to look at his creation and say: If the work of his hands is so full of wisdom and power and grandeur and majesty and beauty, what must this God be like in himself!!John PiperThe Pleasure of God in His Creation

{photo::wildflowers in our Pollywog Creek pasture}

Linking with Deidra's Sunday community...

The pathway of love...

He did not die to make this life easy for us or prosperous. He died to remove every obstacle to our everlasting joy in making much of him. And he calls us to follow him in his sufferings because this life of joyful suffering for Jesus’ sake (Matt. 5:12) shows that he is more valuable than all the earthly rewards that the world lives for (Matt. 13:44; 6:19-20). If you follow Jesus only because he makes life easy now, it will look to the world as though you really love what they love, and Jesus just happens to provide it for you. But if you suffer with Jesus in the pathway of love because he is your supreme treasure, then it will be apparent to the world that your heart is set on a different fortune than theirs. This is why Jesus demands that we deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow him.  ~ John Piper, What Jesus Demands from the World, p. 71 (emphasis mine) 

It's all I have time for today...and it's all that is really needed, and it reminds me of our beautiful sister Sara - whose heart was clearly set on Jesus, the Supreme Treasure.

HT-John Knight {Works of God}

{Photo} what else - my backyard swing

Hunger...

The glory of bread is that it satisfies.

~ John Piper - A Godward Life

I'll open the pantry door and reach for the crackers and chips every time. 

Hunger pains - those steroid and ulcer-induced gnawings - are not patient. They stab and grumble. "Right now," they insist - so I open the pantry and grab the closest food fix to satisfy their greedy demands. 

Junk food - a quick fix. There's no lasting nourishment or fuel for the long haul. Empty calories that weigh me down and do more harm than good - quenching hunger for what truly satisfies, strengthens and heals.

I learn, albeit slowly. 

If bowls of fresh fruit sit full on the kitchen counter, I won't open the pantry. I'll satisfy hunger with nutrient-rich foods that nourish and fuel and heal. 

I learn this, too - when the stabbing pains of life in this broken world gnaw at my soul and eat holes in my heart - and the junk food fixes the world offers weigh me down - I need only eat of the food that truly satisfies, nourishes and heals.

Taste and see that the LORD is good.

{Photos} my kitchen counter

It's never too late...

We sweetened our tea and passed the bowl of grapes and the plate of prosciutto, and Patti, who'd planned every detail, opened her Bible.

I read the article you linked to, Patti glanced at me across the table, and thought I would read a few verses while we're together around this table. 

I smiled knowingly as she continued, Sometimes I wish I could raise my children all over again.

I knew what she meant. We wish for a do-over - to take the measure of maturity and wisdom we possess  today and go back and nurture our children again. But we can't, and regretting the past wastes precious time we have now. 

But it's never too late to change what we do today.

My boys are grown with families of their own, I tell Patti, and though Emily still lives at home, she's an independent young adult. When I shared Ann's article with Louis, he agreed that it's a discipline we should practice. We bring our Bibles to the supper table, and after we eat our food, we read a chapter aloud every day - even if it's only the two of us. We've read James, Colossians and now we're in Thessalonians." I continued. "It really isn't too late to begin doing today what we wish we had known to do years ago."

Finding the passage she was looking for, Patti read, and before we left the table, we'd eaten of the true Bread and were satisfied with all things good...

I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the LORD; let the humble hear and be glad. Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together! I sought the LORD, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them. Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! Oh, fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack! The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.

The glory of bread is that it satisfies.

~ John Piper - A Godward Life

Thank you, Ann (without an e) - you are a gift, and I give thanks to God always for you.

Preparing for Lent...

"O Lord and Master of my life, take from me the spirit of sloth, despair, lust of power, and idle talk. But give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love to Thy servant. Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see my own transgressions, and not to judge my brother, for blessed art Thou, unto ages of ages. Amen."

~ The Lenten Prayer of St. Ephrem

I'll be returning to my "thinking out loud" "free time" post later this week, but with the season of Lent beginning tomorrow my thoughts today have been on preparing and I've decided to repost from last year first. I can smell the roses still today...

I was raised and nurtured in the Christian faith in a church that followed a liturgical calendar with an emphasis on the season of Lent. In my prodigal years of wandering as a young adult, services during Lent were like a tether that pulled me back through the doors of the church - if only for a season. I no longer fellowship and worship in a liturgical church like the one where I grew up, but the season of Lent has remained an important and meaningful time in my personal devotional life and in our family and homeschooling worship and studies, as well. During this Lenten season, I am re-reading through John Piper's Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die. Lent does not begin in the church calendar until tomorrow, Ash Wednesday, but I began this past Sunday, reading chapter 1, and I will end with chapter 50 on Easter Sunday. It was late yesterday afternoon before I had the time to read and meditate on chapter 2. Louis was home during the day and the project that we worked on together -collecting and organizing our income tax information - consumed my morning. After lunch I met with two other ladies to craft gifts for an upcoming women's retreat. My favorite gifts were the fabric hearts we stuffed with rose scented cotton balls, and attached satin ribbon hangers with the words from Ephesians 5:1-2:

"Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."

All afternoon we delighted in our time together and in the rose scent that permeated the room where we worked - a small yet tangible reminder of Christ's extravagant sacrificial love for us - "a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." After dinner I strung the crafted hearts on a large dowel and hung them in the dining room to finish drying overnight. The aroma pleasantly filled our house, as I gathered my Bible and book to read chapter 2. Reason number 2 why Christ suffered and died.....to please His Heavenly Father. In the chapter heading, Piper quoted these verses:

"Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief." Isaiah 53:10 "Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." Ephesians 5:2

I don't believe in coincidences. I do believe that God sometimes orchestrates even the smallest details that manifest His presence in ways that can sometimes be difficult to articulate, but are powerful faith builders for those who experience it none-the-less. Yesterday was one of those experiences. Before the conclusion of our crafting time together yesterday afternoon, one of the ladies expressed urgent needs of prayer. It was a sacred moment between sisters in Christ when we knelt at her feet and pleaded with God in prayer on her behalf. The issues were serious and potentially life-threatening, and as we prayed, she quietly cried out to Jesus - her only hope. When we made the decision to make the fabric hearts and label them with Ephesians 5:2, we did not know that the very same verse would be in my reading that day, or that our friend would be in great need of prayer and an assurance of Christ's presence, or that the verse and the rose-scent would be such a powerful testimony to His presence - but God did. And I believe that it was exactly as He had planned it to be, even if I can't quite articulate it. As with most material from Desiring God Ministries, Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die is available as a free download from their website, but I highly recommend ordering your own copy to annotate and read again and again. Other Lent resources from Desiring God Ministries: Holy Week at the Pipers and Lenten Lights - Eight Biblical Devotions to Prepare for Easter to be used weekly during Lent OR daily during Holy Week

Do you and your church or family celebrate the season of Lent? If so, what do you do differently during Lent that makes these weeks distinct from all the others?